Arpaio doesn’t plan to attend court ordered community meetings

Maricopa County Sheriff Joe Arpaio announces dozens of arrests in a prostitution sting during a news conference at Maricopa County Sheriff’s Office Headquarters Wednesday, Dec. 18, 2013, in Phoenix. Maricopa County sheriff’s deputies made dozens of arrests in the sting in which undercover officers posed as 16-year-old girls as men responded to an online ad. The investigation also resulted in numerous drug-related arrests. (AP Photo/Ross D. Franklin)

Maricopa County Sheriff Joe Arpaio says he doesn’t plan to attend community meetings Saturday that are required in a court case in which his office was found to have racially profiled Latinos.

The sheriff says the meetings in Sun Lakes, Avondale and five other communities were being held at the same time and that he didn’t want to pick a meeting in one community over another.

Instead, he says he’ll send managers who run his operations in each community.

The agency was ordered to hold the meetings by U.S. District Judge Murray Snow in what Snow said was an effort to rebuild public confidence in the agency.

Snow had ruled the agency systematically singled out Latinos in its regular traffic and special immigration patrols.